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[Parsely]

Does anyone here know about swords?
I've seen straight swords with this weird fan shaped tip in several games.  And since it seems a bit impractical compared to having a normal point,I've been wondering if such things actually exist and how they are called if they are actually real.

Here's a drawing symbolizing the kind of sword tip:

I don't think it's a real weapon. There's one photo of one in a museum. Frankly the sword doesn't look like an artifact at all.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/archive/6/68/20120320140252%21Congolese_weapons_-_Higgins_Armory_Museum_-_DSC05510.JPG

The page on the weapon from the collection featured in the above photo.
http://www.higgins-collection.org/artifacts/1605

https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&prev=search&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=de&u=http://www.hamillgallery.com/KUBA/KubaKnives/KubaKnife0708.html&usg=ALkJrhifPIyHSfnyGLFOQakHssGVeUz6dA

For some reason the only wikipedia article on it is in German:
https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konda-Schwert&prev=search

None of the citations show an authentic looking weapon.

This page shows more weapons that look like the one vastaghen is after:
https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&prev=search&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=de&u=http://www.hamillgallery.com/KUBA/KubaKnives/KubaKnives.html&usg=ALkJrhjUWrkAS6ngEMIU55fWiUI-1YezGg

However, note the line on the page: "Most of these knives have not been vetted. Some could have been made to be sold."

My guess? Some asshole saw this sheath (which is authentic): https://web.archive.org/web/20151230050633/http://www.ezakwantu.com/Konda%20Knife%20and%20Scabbard%2006.jpg And he made a fake weapon based on the shape of the sheath.

[vastaghen12]

Thanks to everybody who replied, and specially to GUNINANRUNIN for providing such a comprehensive answer!

---

Bummer, I was hoping it would have been an authentic ceremonial or executioner's sword.

Well I'll look for some other weird sword shape.

[Arx]

art-of-swords.tumblr.com is an interesting collection of various kinds of sword and dagger, including some of the more exotic types that you may not have run across. It's worth a browse.

From my own various researches previously, the flyssa is my personal favourite, but if that's insufficently peculiar, this tulwar may or may not have ever seen battle, but it's certainly exotic.

Edit: oh, and I forgot Zulfiqar, the legendary split-pointed scimitar of Ali ibn Abi Talib.

[Egan_BW]

That's no sword, that's a bloody bread knife!

[Frumple]

A large enough bread knife made sufficiently bloody is a sword by any means worth noting. Particularly if it's the blood of folks sayin' it ain't a sword >_>

[TD1]

It depends on the intent with which it was made. A blade made for cutting bread is a breadknife. A blade made for cutting people is a sword. Or a cleaver, depending on whether or not you have culinary ambitions.

[Egan_BW]

A large enough bread knife made sufficiently bloody is a sword by any means worth noting. Particularly if it's the blood of folks sayin' it ain't a sword >_>

Ain't gonna be my blood if someone comes at with that "weapon" while I have a real sword.

[Frumple]

It will be if the thing's large enough to flatten the building you're in. Sometimes a sword is just a sword. Other times it's a toppling kinetic kill vehicle in the shape of a bread knife. Me, I'm not going to argue with someone able and willing to go into demolition work via upscaled cutlery they decide is either going to be called a sword or an invitation for pro bono deconstruction.

[Egan_BW]

When you need to accelerate your sword to a significant fraction of C in order to kill someone with it, it's not a very good sword.

[My Name is Immaterial]

I think that's no longer a sword... I think that's a handheld railgun.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Ultimate Co-Op Fighting Weapon: Peasant Railgun!

[Frumple]

When you need to accelerate your sword to a significant fraction of C in order to kill someone with it, it's not a very good sword.

Need is not necessary, good fellow. Sometimes you make a city destroying oddly labelled butter knife not because you must, but because you can.

Though in either case, not accelerated. They who demeans the mighty blade moniker of excessive loaf annihilation get naught but a tilting and the inevitability of a tryst between gravity and several tons of an indeterminate metal.

[Egan_BW]

Because you can is the justification for why you try to, but when it turns out that you can't, you'll find that there was no reason to try.

[Frumple]

There's always a reason to try. Even in failure or impossibility can you find the seeds of a future endeavor. Or a crushed sword doubter, I guess. Their place of residence made rubble, if nothing else. All good things, to the one that calls an oversized bread knife a sword.

Alternatively, of course, is that having no reason to try is no reason to not try, heh.

[Shadowlord]

What is need compared to the path?